Life Care Planning is a specialty within elder law emerging around the country that takes a holistic view of every aspect of caring for someone with a chronic illness. We were the first Long Island elder law firm to integrate the Life Care Plan model into its practice and have done so since 2009. While traditional elder law or “Medicaid Planning” attorneys focus on saving the elder’s money for the next generation, Life Care Planning law firms use, if necessary, the elder’s money to maximize his or her quality of life and independence. In essence, Life Care Planning helps people find and pay for good care for life by bundling Medicaid asset protection, Medicaid benefits qualification, Social Security Disability Income (SSI) qualification, long-term care services coordination, nursing home advocacy and crisis intervention.
A Life Care Plan includes:
- Defining and selecting the best care
- Coordinating care
- Advocating for the best care
- Paying for the care
- Qualifying for Medicaid benefits
- Preserving assets for clients and their families, usually through a trust
- Comprehensive estate planning
- Emotional support for elders as well as their families and caregivers
- Care advocacy and crisis intervention
Life Care Planning focuses on using all available resources to maximize clients’ quality of life. There are three principal aspects of a Life Care Plan:
- We make sure that you or your loved one gets good care, at home, in an assisted living facility or in a nursing home. Your Life Care Plan is focused on you achieving your best quality of life, taking into account your health, safety, physical and emotional well-being.
- We help you make decisions relating to your health care, special needs and long-term care planning. We also partner with you to ensure that the decisions you make are carried out according to your wishes and best interests.
- We help you develop a plan to pay for the best care for you while protecting the most assets possible.
We are your resource of experienced, supportive, knowledgeable, and objective advisors to help you receive the best care, get the best quality of life and protect the most assets.
Written by Brian Andrew Tully, Founder of Tully Law, PC, a New York Law Firm. He is Certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation and has been practicing elder law since 1998.